From the Alps to Monforte d’Alba — The Rise of Giacomo Conterno and the Art of Enduring Value

I recently escaped to the mountains (again)

Not far, just across the Mont-Blanc, to the Aosta Valley, to a village called Cogne, perched at the gates of the Gran Paradiso National Park. There, time runs differently. The air feels cleaner, the pace slower, and even the light seems to fall more deliberately, as if reluctant to leave.

I stayed at the Bellevue Hotel, an institution that has mastered the art of stillness. We spent the days hiking, admiring the waterfall and the snowcapped peaks, crossing paths some lazy chamois, before returning each evening to a world of soft wood, gentle music, and the discreet hum of hospitality perfected over generations.

And then, of course, there was the wine cellar, a sanctum of dreams curated by Rino Billia, whose encyclopedic knowledge and intuition make him one of Italy’s great sommeliers. The cellar itself feels like an underground cathedral: a labyrinth of vaulted aisles, bottles resting in quiet dignity, each one a story sealed under glass.

Rino led me through the collection, literally the world’s pantheon of wine, from the storied châteaux of Bordeaux to the hidden miracles of Etna, from Vega Sicilia to Screaming Eagle. It was an emotional walk, the kind that reminds you why you fell in love with wine in the first place: because it connects all places, all times, all human ambitions striving for beauty.

Spectacle aside, I turned to Rino and asked: “What are we drinking tonight?” He smiled and reached for a bottle I had never tasted. Gattinara Vigna Valferana 2019, from the estate now known as Conterno Nervi. As a long-time admirer of Roberto Conterno, I needed no further persuasion.

The Northern Revelation

Gattinara lies far north of Barolo, high on the left bank of the Sesia River, where altitudes rise to nearly 550 meters. Its soils are volcanic, rich in iron, magnesium, and potassium, overlaid with glacial sands and stones that lend the wines a magnetic, ferrous energy. The continental climate sharpens the acidity, extending the ripening season and stretching Nebbiolo’s expression into something tense and crystalline.

When Roberto Conterno acquired the historic Nervi estate in 2018, he did not simply add a new property. He expanded the definition of Piedmontese greatness. He brought to Gattinara the same uncompromising ethos that has guided his family in Monforte d’Alba for a century: precision without ornament, transparency without compromise.

The result is astonishing. The Gattinara Valferana 2019 unfolds with both rigor and tenderness, minerality etched into velvet. It is more architectural than sensual, a Nebbiolo shaped by rock and altitude rather than clay and sun. Yet behind the vertical structure lies that unmistakable Conterno signature: purity of fruit, disciplined extraction, and a rhythm that echoes the patience of time itself.

In that glass, I could sense the dialogue between two worlds: the alpine tension of Gattinara and the profound, earthen gravity of Barolo. It was, in miniature, the story of Roberto Conterno’s journey, the marriage of intellect and emotion, of science and soul.

The House of Giacomo Conterno

To understand the man, one must return to the beginning. The Giacomo Conterno estate was founded in 1908 by Giacomo Conterno, who bottled his own Barolo at a time when most growers sold to négociants. His son Giovanni took over after the First World War, determined to craft a wine that could withstand not just decades but generations. From this vision was born Monfortino Riserva, first released in 1924, a wine that would become both a cultural monument and a philosophical statement.

When Roberto Conterno inherited the reins in 2004, he inherited more than vineyards; he inherited a moral code. Everything at estate Giacomo Conterno revolves around patience. In the vineyards, yields are kept low, in the cellar are interventions minimal, and fermentation follows its own rhythm, often lasting more than a month. The Monfortino spends up to eight years in massive Slavonian oak casks, untouched by new wood, untouched by fashion.

In an age of instant gratification, such restraint feels radical.

Yet this is what defines Monfortino: a refusal to bend to convenience, a faith in time as the ultimate craftsman. Roberto often says he does not “make” Monfortino; he recognizes it. Each year’s fermentations are monitored separately, and only if one vat shows the depth, tension, and soul required does it earn the name. Some years, there is no Monfortino at all, because greatness cannot be manufactured.

The Anatomy of a Legend

To taste Monfortino Riserva is to experience a paradox: an austere wine that feels alive with emotion. It begins closed, stern, a monument of tannin and iron, and slowly expands into something luminous, violets, dried roses, leather, truffle, tar, and that haunting Nebbiolo perfume that seems to hover between sweetness and melancholy.

Each bottle is a living archive of its era.

• 1958 stands as the archetype of post-war Barolo, both muscular and serene, still vivid after six decades.

• 1978 bridged tradition and modernity, earning near-mythical status for its balance and endurance.

• 1990 was a hymn to generosity, ripe and sensual yet anchored by structure—a collector’s dream.

• 2004, Roberto’s first Monfortino from start to finish, redefined purity and precision; a 21st-century benchmark.

• 2010, awarded 100 points by multiple critics, is perhaps the greatest of the modern era, destined to outlive most of us.

• 2014, a vintage of adversity, proved once again that true mastery turns difficulty into grace.

Across these vintages runs a single thread: authentic scarcity. Monfortino is produced only in select years, and never more than 10 000 bottles. Compare that to 300 000 bottles of a First Growth Bordeaux, and you begin to understand why it behaves like a blue-chip rarity on the secondary market. At auction, prices have risen steadily: the 1958 commands over €9 000 per bottle; the 1978, around €6 500; the 1990, €4 000–5 000; and the 2010, already above €1500 barely a decade after release.

Image from my summer 2024 tasting at the Vinoteca Centro Storico in Serralunga d'Alba - I highly recommend

These are not speculative spikes but the compounded reward of patience. The Liv-ex Italy 100 Index has gained roughly 240 % over the past fifteen years, yet top Piedmont icons such as Conterno have far outpaced that figure, with estimated CAGR between 10 % and 12 %, a textbook example of the Fine Wine Equation in motion.

The Fine Wine Equation in Practice

At Lafleur Wines, we often speak of investment in wine as an art of endurance. It is never about chasing momentum, but about identifying those few estates whose values are built on pillars time cannot erode: limited production, increasing demand, decreasing supply, and long-term aging potential.

Monfortino Riserva is the embodiment of this principle:

1. Limited production – Never industrial, never opportunistic. Fewer than ten vintages per twenty years, each release a global event.

2. Increasing demand – The ascent of Italy on the fine-wine stage has turned Monfortino into the reference point for collectors from New York to Hong Kong.

3. Decreasing supply – Bottles are consumed; availability shrinks; scarcity compounds.

4. Aging potential – Proven longevity beyond sixty years; a wine that not only survives but improves through multiple market cycles.

5. Cultural and emotional yield – Every sip carries the weight of heritage and the quiet luxury of meaning.

   
   

In short, Monfortino ticks every investment box while offering something no financial asset can: the right to open and taste your gains.

For deeper context, see our Wine Investment Masterclass

From Market Cycles to Human Faith

History has shown that fine-wine markets move like tides. Booms in the 1970s, corrections in the 1980s, the China-fuelled surge of the 2010s, the recalibration of 2024, each phase is but a breath in the long conversation between value and belief.

When speculative bubbles burst elsewhere, wines like Monfortino remain anchored. They may pause; they never vanish. Their worth is rooted not in hype but in reputation earned over a century of consistent excellence.

As the broader fine-wine market softened after 2022, Bordeaux adjusting to oversupply, Burgundy searching for its post-mania equilibrium, a few monuments stood untouched. Wines like Monfortino do not rise or fall with sentiment because their purpose has never been speculative. Their value does not hinge on short-term sustainability, but on the unalteration of their definition. They are not designed to perform within market cycles; they are designed to outlive them.

While indices fluctuate and headlines shift, Monfortino remains what it has always been: a wine built on integrity, patience, and absolute faith in time. Its meaning is immune to correction. And perhaps that is why, when uncertainty spread across the fine-wine landscape, collectors should turn toward Piedmont, not merely for returns, but for reassurance. In a world obsessed with velocity, Giacomo Conterno may be a sanctuary of stillness, a reminder that true value is not what changes, but what endures.

In that sense, Monfortino behaves like the Romanée-Conti of Italy, not by imitation but by equivalence of purpose. Both represent more than wine, they represent faith in continuity.

The Emotion Behind the Numbers

Back at the Bellevue, as the Gattinara Vigna Valferana 2019 opened in the glass, the air seemed to slow once again. The wine felt alive, its energy pulsing like a mountain stream beneath the calm surface. There was a tension between strength and grace, a mineral hum that spoke of the volcanic soils and high-altitude air. Rino Billia watched quietly, then smiled, the knowing smile of a man who has witnessed countless conversions.

It struck me that faith in investment begins here, in the glass. Before numbers, before charts, there must be belief, belief in the content itself, in the substance that justifies value. The underdog Nebbiolo of northern Piedmont, through the hand of Roberto Conterno, had transcended its origins to deliver something of startling purity and poise. It was a reminder that true conviction, whether in wine or in markets, can only rest on excellence.

Faith in investment is inseparable from faith in craftsmanship. You allocate not to speculation but to conviction, to what you trust will endure because it is built on substance, not noise. And when the foundations are this sound, the rewards are not only financial but emotional, wines that yield both performance and peace of mind.

The bottles that matter most are those that carry meaning forward, those that will outlast fashions, algorithms, and even us. Monfortino is precisely that kind of wine: a bridge between craftsmanship and eternity, between the tangible and the timeless.

The Lesson of Patience — Faith in the Long View

Time not as an enemy to be conquered, but as an ally to be respected. In the cellar, decisions are guided by rhythm, not schedule. In the market, patience becomes the strategy.  It is no coincidence that Monfortino’s financial trajectory mirrors its maturation curve. Both evolve slowly, invisibly, and then, suddenly, reveal their greatness.

Investors who secured allocations of the 2004 or 2010 vintages at release are today sitting on returns exceeding 200–300 %, yet the true reward lies in the deeper satisfaction of owning a piece of history, safely growing in both value and soul.

When I left the Bellevue the next morning, the peaks were wrapped in clouds and the scent of pine lingered in the air. I thought of the bottle we had shared and of the silent casks in Monforte d’Alba, where another Monfortino was perhaps already in gestation, years away from its first whisper of release.

There are few certainties in markets, fewer still in life. But some truths feel immutable: water will carve valleys, time will refine greatness, and wines made with purpose will always find their place in history. Monfortino outlives speculation because its definition never changes; it is conviction made tangible.

In every sense, cultural, emotional, financial, it represents what we at Lafleur Wines strive to defend: authenticity, scarcity, and the quiet luxury of patience. So when the world accelerates, I think of that cellar beneath the Bellevue, of Rino Billia’s smile, and of the long rows of bottles waiting for their moment. Some will deliver pleasure; a few, like Monfortino, will deliver legacy.

A Final Thought

If this vision of wine, measured not in quarters but in generations, resonates with you, I would be delighted to discuss how we can curate such enduring assets together.

Book a private consultation:https://calendly.com/marc-lafleurwines/investment-call

Because true value, like great wine, is built over time.

Marc Lafleur Founder, Lafleur Wines